D&D General Compelling and Differentiated Gameplay For Spellcasters and Martial Classes

[Sacrosanct]

So...i think the real world might have an answer to this. Well. Errr...sorta...

Maybe there isnt a problem here to be fixed. If a person becomes a soldier in the military they gain certain abilities, fitness, skill, knowledge, and other things. Many of these things can be applied to new functional positions in society thereafter and many things are useful in a narrow set of scenarios. There are things a standard soldier can do by default and ither things they may be able to do due to other experience in life. If they want to learn how to run a large company they will probably have to go out of their way to get additional experience in a setting they actually havent been exposed to as of yet to know how to do that. There are overlaps and they are uneven. But maybe thats just it and its ok.

I like to think my time in the military gave me super skills, but alas, no

Now, i understand everyone wants a balanced game but maybe its best to have a mostly balanced game with a little unbalancing. And maybe regardless of how you set the rukes up, due to the way our universe works any difference signifficant enough to distinguish classes will naturally cause some degree of unbalancing. To me it seems that the tendencies of this type of game inherently resemble real life. And i dont view the need to have the occasional level dip or prestige class in order to round a character out to be a negative mark on a class unless the class reeeeeeaaaally sucks. After all, in real life thats what successful humans usually do. They generally get a job or two or three that they excel in and they take "dips" into other things to augment just how good or uniquely capable they are at their main role or roles in life.

Sure! I also think the option to multi class opens the door wide open to achieve concepts people want. Technically it’s an optional rule, but I’m betting over 90% of game tables (if not higher) allow multiclassing on some level. If I want my fighter to be able to do reality bending abilities, even if I don’t use my extra feat on ritual caster or magic initiate, or choose Eldritch knight, doing a level dip or two into a caster class achieves that.

 

[Son of the Serpent]

Well i know you dont come out the other end being batman but soldiers do have a number of reasons i chose them for the example. Part of that is higher than population average skill at their age and also athletic health and proficiency with using said fitness. Also a bit wider skill set than average. (Irl soldier may not be a superhero but irl soldier>than first few levels of fighter at the very least with a lot more skills)

Not to mention they tend to have a lot of skills that assist them with other professions later in life. They are a poster child for irl multiclassing and how it can actually turn out really well. also they may advance as a purist or prestige.

Maybe we just need to have a closer look at the math behind xp and multiclass level gain. Im gonna do so at some point in the next couple days (maybe today). Ill post any good idea on this i get to this thread.

 

[Son of the Serpent]

Btw, @Sacrosanct , out of curiosity, from your own experience how common is it for soldiers pre during or post service to play d&d? I get this feeling that its actually an elevated percentage compared to most groups but i dont know that for sure and it could just be due to the fact that far more than half of them are men and far more than half of hours put into d&d are play put in by men. Ive known a number of soldiers that played d&d but i dont know that many soldiers in general so its a point of curiosity.

 

[Sacrosanct]

For your real life multiclassing example, I agree. I mean, I grew up on a farm doing basic computer programming as a hobby. Then went into the military for six years as a black hawk helicopter crew chief. Then got out and have spent the past 20 years in project management/QA analysis software testing for a large corporation.

I don’t think I’m unusual in that regard. Long gone are the days where most people worked for the same company for 30 years and got a pension.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Btw, @Sacrosanct , out of curiosity, from your own experience how common is it for soldiers pre during or post service to play d&d? I get this feeling that its actually an elevated percentage compared to most groups but i dont know that for sure and it could just be due to the fact that far more than half of them are men and far more than half of hours put into d&d are play put in by men. Ive known a number of soldiers that played d&d but i dont know that many soldiers in general so its a point of curiosity.

I was in from 92 to 98, so that was when MtG took off. And it was fairly big in the military because it was easily portable. RPGs weren’t so much unless you were not deployed. However, while I knew a lot of people who played in the military, I wouldn’t say it was much higher than the general population.

 

[Son of the Serpent]

For your real life multiclassing example, I agree. I mean, I grew up on a farm doing basic computer programming as a hobby. Then went into the military for six years as a black hawk helicopter crew chief. Then got out and have spent the past 20 years in project management/QA analysis software testing for a large corporation.

I don’t think I’m unusual in that regard. Long gone are the days where most people worked for the same company for 30 years and got a pension.

I see. Thankyou for the response.

 

[Son of the Serpent]

I was in from 92 to 98, so that was when MtG took off. And it was fairly big in the military because it was easily portable. RPGs weren’t so much unless you were not deployed. However, while I knew a lot of people who played in the military, I wouldn’t say it was much higher than the general population.

It must be the pool selection bias involving males then. Thankyou.

 

[Campbell]

When I was in (2008-2012) lots of us played Dungeons and Dragons, Magic, and World of Warcraft. However I was in the Commo Platoon of an Air Defense Artillery Battery. The MOS types in my battery tended towards geekery. Different parts of the Army are different.

 

[gyor]

Once more for those up the back....."SPELLCASTERS CAN DO THAT AS WELL, THE UNBALANCE OF AGENCY STILL REMAINS".

So expand the skill options that non casters have above what casters have.

Still in all honestly I find those who pick none magic users baffling, why play someone who fools around with knifes when you can play someone who can bend reality?

 

[Oofta]

So expand the skill options that non casters have above what casters have.

Still in all honestly I find those who pick none magic users baffling, why play someone who fools around with knifes when you can play someone who can bend reality?

Brog say: "Bah. Weak mages twiddle fingers and cheat reality. Ax to head more honest. Real men don't hide behind magic."

Besides, try running an all mage party sometime. It might be possible in 5E (I haven't tried) but in previous editions it just didn't work. Well, that and sometime I just like the simplicity because the last thing I want to do on my day off is think.